Christopher is a tourism expert with almost 15 years of experience in the field of tourism and destination development. He studied tourism management at the IMC in Krems (Austria) and afterwards he worked for 13 years for Kohl & Partner, the number 1 tourism consultancy in the Alpine Region. He was responsible for the international destination development projects and one of the partners of the company.

During his time at Kohl & Partner Christopher implemented more than 50 tourism projects in 19 countries and was a speaker at more than 30 international tourism conferences in 17 countries.

Christopher is a lecturer at the University of Applied Science IMC Krems (Austria) lecturing “International Consulting – Destination Development”. From beginning 2017 to until recently Christopher had been working for Alturos Destinations, a company offering IT-solutions for tourism destinations. He was the Head of “Destination Services” offering services in the field of “digitalization in tourism destinations”. With the two brands Skiline (IT-based entertainment tools for Mountain Resorts) and Peaksolution (an online sales solution for tourism destinations) Alturos Destinations is one of the leading companies in this particular field.

Professor Dimitrios Buhalis is Head of Department Tourism and Hospitality, Director of the eTourism Lab and Deputy Director of the International Centre for Tourism and Hospitality Research, at Bournemouth University in England.

He is a Strategic Management and Marketing expert with specialisation in Information Communication Technology applications in the Tourism, Travel, Hospitality and Leisure industries. His research area is cutting across a number of disciplines and is looking into adoption of innovations for creating value for both consumers and organisations. Current research focus includes Smart Tourism, SoCoMo Marketing (Social media Context and Mobile Marketing), Augmented Reality, Experience management and Personalisation, Reputation and Social Media Strategies, Accessible and Special Diet (Alergens) Tourism.

Mr. Sam Martin is currently a Ph.D. candidate in heritage tourism in the department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources at Colorado State University.

Sam has more than 25 years of industry experience having owned and operated several tourism-oriented businesses. He has also held senior marketing and management positions at up-scale resort and lodging properties and in institutional fundraising.

Albert began his career with studies in tourism and hospitality with a Degree in Hotel and Tourism Management, ESHT Sant Pol de Mar, and later in Management (Executive Program in Business Administration, EAE, Barcelona). He completed his training with an MBA in International Hospitality Management from Cornell University, Ithaka, NY – groupe ESSEC, Paris, France.

His career developed in management positions in international hotel groups such as Barceló Hotel Group and Hyatt Corporation. In 1998 he joins Horwath Consulting Spain as manager and in 2000 he is Director of Development and Positioning for Spain at Mazars Tourism, managing the Barcelona office. In 2004 he co-founded Magma Hospitality Consulting, with offices in Barcelona, Bogotá and London. He is also a professor for the Master’s Degree Programs, MBA: UAB (Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona). Read more: MAGMA Hospitality Consulting

Enric has a Diploma in Tourism from the University of Gerona and a Degree in Tourist Destinations from the Le Mirail University of Toulouse.

His work has led him to different positions of management and responsibility both in the private sector (accommodation and travel agencies) and in the public (Andorra national and local public administration). In 2006 he was Director of the Government Tourist Department and in 2008 was a driving force behind the creation of the company Andorra Turisme, of which he was the first CEO. Andorra Turisme is the public company responsible for implementing and controlling tourist marketing actions in order to improve Andorra’s competitiveness as a tourist destination.

In 2010 he became Director of the Product Club of the parish of Canillo (Andorra) in order to promote an entity of public-private collaboration to position Canillo as a mountain destination all year round, to work on producing a distinctive offer and to increase the number of proposals and products available to customers and consumers. Since 2012 he has been Director of Product and New Projects for the company Andorra Turisme. His department consists of 6 staff and takes care of the management and organization of important cultural and sporting events in Andorra, as well as the follow-up of sponsorship activities, and puts and special emphasis on all those projects which need coordination with the private sector as to structure the offer and its subsequent commercialization in the main markets and tourist segments.

Nowadays accommodation facilities in mountain destinations offer more than just a bed. This session aims at identifying new concepts for accommodation facilities in mountain destinations and to answer the question, why some properties are more successful than others?

Dr. Fiona Pià was born in Andorra. She holds a PHD in architecture and urban planning from the EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne). Her research focuses on the elaboration of new models of urbanization and sustainable mobility in the mountains. Her work has been awarded several times and is of great interest to academics as well as concerned local communities.

In addition to her academic and scientific research work at LAMU (EPFL's Urban architecture and mobility laboratory), Fiona Pià is a partner architect of dl-a, designlab-architecture LLC in Geneva. Her firm is leading in the design and implementation of alpine projects such as "Montagne Alternative" (Valais-Suisse). Designlab-architecture is also among the leading firms in the Andermatt Swiss Alps Project (Uri-Switzerland). Dr. Pia's academic publications; Dr. Pia's architecture related projects

Mr. Valeri Chekheria has gained 18 years of managerial experience at various local and international organizations including Parliament of Georgia, Ministry of Finance of Georgia, Ministry of Economy of Georgia, Permanent Mission of Georgia to the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Adjara Group Hospitality.

He graduated from Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University with a master’s degree in law (2000-2004) and Columbia University in the City of New York with a master’s degree in Public Administration (2007-2009).At the end of 2011, Mr. Chekheria was offered a position of Business Development Manager at Adjara Group hospitality - the holding company that currently owns and manages Holiday Inn Tbilisi, Rooms Kazbegi and Rooms Tbilisi Hotels and Fabrika Tbilisi Hostel as well as Aviator Air Taxi company. Upon return to Georgia, he facilitated rapid transformation and growth of Adjara Group Hospitality and shortly emerged as CEO of the group. In 2012, Mr. Chekheria initiated creation of the first ever Georgian brand hotel chain “Rooms Hotels”. At this stage, Adjara Group is the largest and the most rapidly growing holding company in the Georgian hospitality industry, with several major expansion projects in the pipeline: Stamba Hotel Tbilisi, Rooms Hotel Batumi, Rooms Hotel & Suits Bakuriani, and Aviator Casino & Hotel Tbilisi in 2018.

Mr. Chekheria was elected as Chairman of the UN Global Compact (Georgian Network) as well as a Member of the Board of Directors at McLain Association for Children.

As competition increases, many mountain destinations try to regularly offer new outstanding tourism products, innovative accommodation facilities or new complementary amenities to the visitors. This session aims at providing food for thought for the mountain tourism industry.

After finishing his law studies in Barcelona, Mr. Jordi Daban joined the family company Daguisa Group in 1995. After having held several positions within in the company in basically all business branches, he was appointed Sole Administrator of the DAGUISA GROUP in 2008 and CEO of DAGUISA HOTELES.

Apart from his duties in the family business Mr. Jordi Daban was appointed spokesman for the Hotel Union of Andorra in 1998 and from 2001 to 2005 he was member of the General Counsel of the Principality of Andorra, the unicameral parliament of the country.

In 2007 he was elected president of the Association of Hoteliers of Andorra. He is currently Vice President of Tourism of the Chamber of Commerce of Andorra.

Ms. Niina Pietikäinen is Director for Business Development and entrepreneur in 3rd generation at Harriniva Hotels & Safaris, an accommodation and adventure operator in Muonio, Lapland Finland.

Harriniva is known as one of the first internationally recognized wilderness operators in Finland and has been all through its history one of the best-known Finnish tourism companies, due to a combination of constant development and innovativeness combined with values and a trust in own core strengths. Niina Pietikäinen has been the director of sales and marketing in Harriniva ltd for 10 years, moving on to current position 1,5 years ago. Before that she spent a nearly 7 year period abroad living and studying in various European countries and gaining a BBA in European Business Administration and knowledge of 6 foreign languages. She has followed her fathers and grandfathers footsteps by participating strongly in the development of the area as well as tourism on local and also national level.

She is a member of the board of directors of Muonio Tourism, member of the tourist board in the Lappish Chamber of Commerce, member of tourism development groups under the Travel and Restauration Labour Market Organization (MaRa) and under the Ministry of Employment and Economy (TEM). The dearest lobbying to her is however responsible tourism, as operating in one of the last untouched wilderness. She is also a member of the International Centre for Responsible Tourism (ICRT) Finland. Read more: Harriniva Hotels & Safaris

Since he published the book "Gamification in Tourism: How to Design Memorable Experiences" in 2015, Paul Bulencea has lectured about designed or implemented memorable experiences in more than ten countries around the globe.

Mr. David Benito works at Melia Hotels International as Head Digital Channels. In the ten years he has been working in the company, he has always been involved in the digital areas of the company. Among other responsibilities, he has been Responsible for Marketing & Online Sales for Spain and Portugal as well as Responsible for Online & Ecommerce Distribution for Asia Pacific. From his position as Head of Innovation & Mobile, he has promoted the mobile channel within Melia's digital transformation strategy.

In addition to his duties at Melia he is Professor of the MBA ETourism and holds the Meliá Chair of Tourism Studies, both at the University of the Balearic Islands (UIB).

Session 3: Information Technology for Communication and Marketing – the Game-Changing Impact for Mountain Destinations and its Stakeholders

IT solutions, Big Data and Digitalization are currently creating a buzz in every industry – the tourism sector is not an exception. This session will discuss this fast developing segment and its impact on tourism destinations.

Hiroyuki is a graduate from McGill University (Canada) and made his Phd at Nippon Dental University - Pharmaceutical Research Center in 1998.

In 1984 he founded IDB Corporation (a travel system software solution company) and in 2001, together with Kei & Kenichi Shibata Venture Republic Inc. He created the foundation of Travel.jp meta search system. Venture Republic Inc. IPO'ed in 2008 in Japan and later MBO'ed in 2013. Hiroyuki is currently Member of the Board.

He likes flying as he is an instrument rated pilot, with more than 2.000 hours of flight time and owns a Mooney M20J (JA4225) single engine 4 seater. Read more: Venture Republic Inc.

Dan Holowack is the CoFounder and CEO of CrowdRiff. He works closely with industry leaders in travel, tourism and marketing to uncover the most cutting edge challenges and solutions for sourcing and scaling visual content to engage audiences. By day, he loves big data, user-generated content, and marketing automation. By night (and on weekends!) you can catch him windsurfing, traveling with his better half, or jamming on his bass guitar.

CrowdRiff is a visual marketing platform used by over 250 tourism brands to discover, organize, acquire rights and publish the most engaging visual content across every channel, at scale.

Mr. Isaac, originally from Scotland, has more than 25 years of experience in both small and large organizations in various countries, specializing in Revenue Management, Distribution & Pricing. He has been one of the key figures in the design and implementation of the Revenue strategy of NH Hotel Group, where he remained 11 years in various positions at both global and national level.

He also teaches Revenue Management in various universities throughout Spain. Currently in charge of Customer Experience at Beonprice, offering RM solutions to clients worldwide...

Session 4: Tools for Quality Management in Mountain Destinations

The customer’s expectations towards quality are growing. This session will explore the ways to improve quality visitor experience in mountain destinations.

With 40 years of experience in tourism planning, development, management and marketing, Victor's experience as a consultant for projects for companies, institutions and governments is focused on innovation management, planning, positioning, competitive intelligence and experiential marketing. Victor is considered an international renowned expert in quality, having designed and managed most of the Spanish Tourism Quality Plan, as a pioneer project on an international scale. Under his direction, the Intercontinental Hotel Madrid received the award for the best business hotel in Europe. Among other positions Viktor chaired the International Committee of the ISO for Tourist Accommodation.

He is a registered consultant for the European Development Bank and UNWTO, acted as Secretary of the Spanish Association of Tourism Consultancies and in addition is member of AECIT. Mr. Gorgas was guest and tenured lecturer at the Catholic University San Antonio in Murcia (UCAM), Spain and invited to collaborate with other Universities in Spain and Latin America. He has published several scientific articles and books (among them the only UNWTO publication on quality in tourism) and has an exhaustive knowledge of countries in Americas, Europe, the Maghreb and the Middle East. Read more: Grupo Inmark

Chantal studied Tourism at the University for Applied Sciences in Sierre/Switzerland. After some working experience in the hotel industry and tour operators she joined the Swiss Tourism Federation in Bern where she is Vice-director and Responsible for the Department of Quality Labels.

Besides that she has a University diploma of Business Administration for Non profit organizations and she is teaching „Politics in Tourism“ and Quality Management" at the Tourism Academy in Lucerne/Switzerland. Read more: The Quality Label for Swiss Tourism

Natacha holds a Master in Urban and Regional Planning from the Institut de Géographie Alpine, Grenoble (France) which includes a detailed education on how to manage and maintain ski resorts in order to extend the winter season. Thus she has the advantage of a broader vision in what n mountain tourism development is concerned. After finishing her masters degree she continued studying Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Hannover and after two years in Bournemouth- (UK) , Heilbronn (Germany) - and Chambéry (France) achieved the Erasmus Master degree in European Tourism Management .

During the following 20 years of her professional career both sides of her academic education have been of importance when she was implementing and adapting product strategies and destination development policies in the field of the tour operator business, mountain destination development (both in traditional French villages and big international renowned ski resorts) and lately in the hospitality sector.

Since 2010, Natacha has been in charge of the improvement and development of Montagnettes Group’s marketing and sales strategy which consisted in enhancing the relationship between the customer and the accommodation products the group is offering. Montagnettes group is running 10 accommodation properties in 5 major ski destinations: Val Thorens, Les Menuires, Courchevel, La Plagne and Tignes. www.montagnettes.co.uk

Simon Milne is Professor of Tourism at Auckland University of Technology, where he is Director of the New Zealand Tourism Research Institute. Simon completed his PhD in economic geography at Cambridge University in 1989 and then taught at McGill University, Montreal for ten years before returning to New Zealand in 1999.

For the past 30 years Simon’s research has focused on the interface between tourism, information and communication technologies, community and sustainable economic development. Much of Simon’s research aims to develop applied solutions to pressing tourism development needs in both developed and developing nations.

Simon has consulted to a number of international organisations including UNESCAP, UNDP, UNEP, UNIDO, the European Union, the World Bank and the Organisation of American States. Simon has worked in mountain environments and settings around the world and has focused in particular on the need to enhance both the visitor and host community experience of tourism and visitor development. Much of his work focuses on the development of research to underpin local decision support systems and to enhance effective strategy development at enterprise, community and destination scales. Read more: New Zealand Tourism Research Institute

Session 5:Knowledge Management and Capacity Building: Keys to Success

Nice hotels, slopes and tourism facilities are only one side of the coin of a successful mountain destination – soft factors like knowledge management, service quality and capacity building is the other.

Dr. Tobias Luthe is professor for sustainability science at the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur, and lecturer at ETH Zurich, University of Lugano (all Switzerland) and University of Freiburg, Germany. As a transdisciplinary sustainability scientist with a graduate training in forest sciences and wood engineering, in environmental economics, economic geography and in communication on sustainability, Luthe is interested in place-based human-environment relations and the transition to a more sustainable society – across disciplines, industry sectors and in various geographies.

He has been trained both in the natural and social sciences and is used to combine, mix and integrate rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods. He teaches courses in human-environment systems - such as sustainable tourism -, in environmental change, resilience, systemic design, environmental engineering, and sustainability management, favourably in a didactic setting of outdoor experiences and blended learning. His interests in employing science for helping to design a more sustainable world are matched with his entrepreneurial mindset.

Dr. Luthe is founding director of the MonViso Institute, a mountain hub and real-world laboratory for research, education and entrepreneurship in sustainability transitions and systemic design, situated in the Italian Piedmont mountains. As a certified mountaineering guide and professional ski instructor he founded Grown, an outdoor creativity lab, with the invention of the most eco-friendly skis, and offers outdoor sport adventures in combination with design thinking and science communication in wild places. Read More: The MonViso Institute

"Ah, you are the woman who is turning this hotel upside down“, stated once Jon Fadri Huder, Mayor of Samedan, Engadin. With enormous enthusiasm and energy Amelung & Partners implements customer driven recipes to accelerate innovation in the hospitality world.

When Francis Ford Coppola decided to streamline the service at his Palazzo Margherita luxury hotel in Southern Italy's Basilicata region he turned to Amelung & Partners. With a background in hotel operations and training Peggy Amelung, adds her magic touch to even the most polished hotel or customer management. As hospitality consultant, Peggy Amelung not only lends her years of expertise and her meticulous attention to detail to a client's project, true to their mantra 'simple completeness', she is also at hand to help the hotel team deliver on their promise with dedicated training and coaching programmes helped by being fluent in German, English, Italian and Spanish.

With a degree in hotel business administration, her position as a restaurant manager at the long established Gogärtchen was the stepping stone to a career that led her first to New York as part of the opening management teams of The Regent Wall Street Hotel followed by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Central Park and then on to Bulgari Hotels & Resorts first hotel in Milan – arguably one of the best hotels in the world. Read more: Amelung & Partners

Omar Valdez, Argentinean, holds a Bachelor degree in Public Relations and an Executive Master in Tourism Management at Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain.

Omar worked in different industries in Buenos Aires (Telecommunications, IT, Media) before moving to the Principality of Andorra, where he worked for Grandvalira (the largest ski resort in the Pyrenees and one of the largest in Europe) for three years. In 2004, Omar joined the UNWTO.Themis Foundation as a Senior Consultant.

The UNWTO.Themis Foundation, founded in 1998 and based in the Principality of Andorra, is responsible for implementing the work programme on Education and Training of the World Tourism Organization, with the objective of supporting Member States in the formulation and implementation of educational policies, plans and instruments which effectively contribute to an improvement in the quality, competitiveness and sustainability of the tourism sector through excellence in education and training. Since 2010, Omar is the Executive Director of the Foundation. Read more: UNWTO.Themis Foundation

Miquel Nicolau i Vila has been president of the Universitat d’Andorra (UdA) since May 2015, when he was unanimously elected by the University Council. Born in 1962 and having trained in many fields, he holds a PhD in Electronic Engineering from the Universitat Ramon Lull (URL). He also holds a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) and a Master’s Degree in Intelligent Systems and Parallel Environments from the Universitat Ramon Llull (URL).

Session 6: The Impact of New Platform Tourism Services and so called “Sharing Economy Concepts” on Accommodation in Mountain Destinations

New online platforms and sharing economy concepts offer new possibilities for mountain destinations to diversify the accommodation offer. This session aims at providing a state-of-the-art view on the topic from platform operators’ as well as from the mountain DMOs’ perspective.

Alexis joined the Sales team of Airbnb's Paris office back in 2012. He quickly focused on ski markets in France - especially the French Alps - as a business developer. The first focus was to work on the "Cold Beds" by partnering with ski resorts to convince non-renters to market their homes on Airbnb (25% of Airbnb's ski supply was not in market before Airbnb).

He then developed professional supply by developing API's with the major softwares. The next challenges will be to launch the Experience platform in ski markets and test new types of lodging supply.

Carola studied Philosophy at Turin University and graduated in 1996 with a thesis in ‘Aesthetic and compared Literature’ entitled: “Between the abyss and the sky. The poetry of Hans Christian Andersen”. During her studies she spent time at the University of Copenhagen with the Erasmus Programme (August - November 1995), in order to write her thesis. One year later she started specializing in Nordic Literature at the Institute of Nordic Studies, part of the University of Copenhagen with a Danish scholarship for a post-lauream course. She obtained the Danish Language Certificate DANSKPRØVE 2, that gave her the possibility to teach Danish Language and Literature at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Turin (2000/1-2008/9) and to translate Danish Literature for many years as well, collaborating with publishing houses, libraries, study centers and consulates.

Afterwards Carola became head of the Secretariat for Administration, Organisation and Incoming for the Bardonecchia Tourism Association (2008-2014) and at the moment she works as Administrative Assistant for an Italian hotel chain. Carola is a member of the Council of the Commune of Bardonecchia, concerned with Tourism. Read more:Tourism Bardonecchia, Bardonecchia Ski Resort, Turismo Torino e Provincia

Eva Muro has graduated in Law and joined the Barcelona City Council in 2000. Ever since, she has been carrying out her functions in the field of urban planning, licensing and inspections in different positions, first as a Legal Expert, then as Head of the Legal Services of the District of Horta-Guinardó, and later as Director of Licensing and Inspections of the District of Nou Barris.

In 2016 she has been promoted to the post of the Director of Inspection Services for the Town Planning Sector of the Barcelona City Council, the department in charge of inspecting construction sites and activities carried out in the different districts, as well as of the development and maintenance of the Authority's computer application that serves the entire City Council (Autoritas).

She leads a team of 36 inspectors that in a direct and centralized manor carries out the inspection of homes and tourist accommodation, assisted by a team of six lawyers and two technicians who are responsible for the disciplinary proceedings. Likewise, they enforce and manage disciplinary actions with the Tourist Accommodation Platforms through the use of the IT-solution “Spider-web” and coordinate a team of 40 inspectors, who perform the tasks of searching and locating online offers.

From a hotel family, he began his career with studies in Hospitality and Tourism, and later in Management: MBA in International Hospitality Management from Cornell University, PDD from IESE Business School, Barcelona and several postgraduate degrees from Cornell University.

Bruno has been passionate about his work in hospitality and strategic consulting for the last 20 years, 13 of which have been devoted to his own company, Magma Hospitality Consulting. With offices in Barcelona and London, Bruno has working experience in more than 25 countries, executing more than 250 market and feasibility studies for national and international investors and hotel groups. Read more: MAGMA Hospitality Consulting